Brent crude oil October futures were trading at $51.17 per barrel, recording an increase of 0.6 percent ($0.28) on August 19, CNBC reported.
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Brent crude oil prices dipped in early Asian trading hours on Friday, but remained near two-month highs with Brent still holding above $50 per barrel in a bull-run that has lifted the market by over 20 percent since early August. Brent earlier hit $51.22, its highest since June 22.
“The latest news from Saudi Arabia is not price-supportive at all”, Carsten Fritsch, senior oil and commodities analyst at Germany’s Commerzbank, said, “This is a double whammy for the oil market”. “Crude oil demand is anemic, gasoline demand has decelerated globally, and China crude oil imports are likely to decelerate”.
Should we see an eighth consecutive weekly rise in the number of rigs in the U.S., it may further alleviate some of the upward pressure on oil prices which have only increased over the course of this week.
West Texas Intermediate for September delivery was 10 cents lower at $48.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:53 p.m.in London.
Crude-oil prices for 2017 are rising, and companies may take advantage of the recent rally to lock in prices for future production, said energy-consulting firm Petromatrix in a note.
In Libya, the National Oil Corporation began to load a tanker with crude from storage tanks at the country’s eastern Zueitina port to move to a local refinery.
Weakness in the United States currency has also helped boost the dollar-traded commodity by making it cheaper, encouraging demand.
Some traders warned that the recent price rally was overblown and not based on fundamentals, which still point to an oversupplied market. Some in the market have speculated that a production sharing deal might be in the works.
OPEC will next month hold an informal meeting in Algerian capital Algiers, and this has stoked speculation that the group plus Russian Federation will strike a deal to freeze production having failed to reach a deal back in April.
Saudi Arabia has helped stoke that perception, after scuttling a similar plan in April.
The low oil prices have rattled the economies of many producers, forcing them to rethink a remedy.
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A recent report from the American Petroleum Institute show that, for July, the US market was more or less flat, with soaring consumer demand for fuel products balanced by higher gasoline production, despite declines in USA crude oil production.
